


Gimme Shelter

by December21st



Category: Castle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-06
Updated: 2011-09-06
Packaged: 2017-10-23 11:39:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/249890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/December21st/pseuds/December21st
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Adopt-a-Shelter Pet week at the 12th Precinct!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gimme Shelter

**Author's Note:**

> Response to the Bingo Challenge at LiveJournal's Castleland.

“A parakeet.”

“My friend Mae had a parakeet in the third grade. It bit me. And her. And the family cat, Killer.”

“I’m surprised it survived.”

“They didn’t call the cat ‘Killer’ until after that. Not exactly bright, even for a bird.”

“A parrot. I could teach it to say ‘dead men tell no tales’ and ‘shiver me timbers’.”

“And yet, still a bird.”

“A monkey?”

“ _Seriously_ , Castle?”

“What? It would be adorable, sitting on your shoulder. We could get it a little vest and teach it to play the harmonica and beg for peanuts and …” Beckett just looks at him, her hand on her chin, until he runs out of steam.

“You know, when I said I was thinking about getting a pet, I was thinking maybe some fish or something.”

“Fish are boring. And hard to pet.”

“I saw the faces you were making at the fish in Dr. Talbot’s office. They may be boring, but the entertainment factor would still be there.”

“What you need is to do some window shopping.”

***

“I can’t believe you got a cat. You are so completely not a cat person. A ferret, maybe, or a cocker spaniel. But just a plain old cat?” Castle’s not unhappy, exactly, but he never would have pegged Beckett as a cat person. It bothers him.

“He’s only six years old. And they were going to put Buster to sleep if nobody adopted him.” Beckett sounds like the thought of a cat she’s only known since yesterday being put to sleep is the worst thing she can think of.

“You couldn’t at least get a kitten?”

“Kittens get adopted all the time. But people don’t adopt used cats.”

“He’ll scratch your furniture.”

“No, the shelter said he’s always been an indoor cat, well trained. And he’s a hunter; he already killed two spiders in the bathtub.”

“Your bathtub has spiders in it?”

“Not any more.”

“Are you at least going to give him a better name than Buster?”

“He’s been Buster his whole life. It would confuse him if I changed his name.”

“I have to admit, he looks like a Buster. That’s got to be the biggest cat I’ve ever seen.”

"Don't say that in front of him, Castle, you'll hurt his feelings."

***

“Okay, Beckett, you win. Shelter pets rock.”

“Wha’d you get, Esposito?”

“A German Shepherd. She belonged to a guy who was using her as a guard dog to protect his drug stash. She’s a good dog, though, led the cops right to where he’d hidden the drugs, didn’t give them a bit of trouble.”

"Isn't your apartment kinda small for a German Shepherd?" Beckett wonders.

"It's not so bad. My next door neighbor's out of work, so I'm paying him to take Gertrude out on a walk during the day." Esposito's grinning, like he has it all figured out.

"Gertrude? You named your dog Gertrude?" Castle practically accuses him.

"What's wrong with Gertrude? I figured she'd be more comfortable with a German name, otherwise I'd have given her a Spanish name."

"First, Beckett gets a cat named Buster. Then, you get a dog named Gertrude. Am I the only one here with any creativity at all? Ow!" Castle clutches at the back of his head, where Beckett's slapped him.

"Gertrude is a great name, Esposito," Beckett reassures her co-worker. "I can't wait to meet her."

"Sure, no problem. I should warn you, she has a tendency to jump up on people and lick their faces. Lanie thinks it's a little annoying, so we're starting obedience classes next week."

***

Beckett follows Castle into his loft, looking around. "Okay, so you followed the trend and got a pet. I'm surprised Alexis allowed it. Where is it?"

They're over here!" Castle tells her, with a childish exuberance. Beckett's eyes follow his gesture towards a huge fish tank burbling in the corner, a colorful assortment of fish darting around in it.

"I thought you said fish were boring?"

"They are."

"So why did you get fish?"

"This is why," Castle tells Beckett, leading her towards the fish tank. He hunches down and points to a striped fish. "This is Blake. You can tell because he looks like a tiger." He points to another one, this one a brilliant blue. "This is Cerulean. You can call her Sue." The next fish is spotted ...


End file.
